Claudia Davila refers to her team at Mosaic Family Services as a “mini-United Nations” for good reason: she works alongside 50+ counselors, case managers, attorneys, and interns whose migration stories—their own or their families’—begin in Latin America, Asia, or Africa. This diversity is essential given Mosaic’s clientele, many of whom are immigrants or refugees. Claudia and the mental health professionals she supervises provide clinical interventions in Spanish as well as English, using interpreters when necessary to build rapport with those who speak other languages. In many ways, the challenges Mosaic’s clients grapple with resemble those that often bring people, regardless of national origin, to social workers: anxiety, depression, domestic violence, and child maltreatment. In other ways, Claudia’s social work is decidedly unique and her clinical tasks more difficult than most. Indeed, many of Mosaic’s clients have taken perilous journeys to reach the agency’s doors.
Claudia’s social work career started with a practicum at Child Protective Services that cemented her commitment to the profession. Visiting families’ homes and seeing the challenges they face fueled her passion to help those most in need. Of Peruvian origin herself, Claudia feels especially called to work with those whose language and, sometimes, immigration status can make them feel like strangers in the country that is their home. After graduation, Claudia worked with children of all ages in Title I-designated schools, where most families are low-income. Claudia became particularly interested in how trauma affects the brain and how intervening with families could make a difference. After leaving school social work, she worked with women in her private clinical practice. Many of her clients were Latina immigrants who faced obstacles, including cultural distance from social service providers, to seeking and receiving help. Convinced that an empowerment approach was imperative to helping these clients navigate systems and achieve wellness, Claudia sought a job where she could bring together her trauma-informed clinical lens, commitment to helping clients meet tangible as well as psychological needs, and passion for changing the odds for an entire generation of her community. Mosaic Family Services, where she has now practiced for 16 years, is that total package.
Mosaic’s services have expanded in recent years, to include not only domestic violence and migrant trauma, but also mental health assessments and interventions for children and young people struggling with eating disorders, anxiety, and attachment issues. This programmatic evolution is a response to unmet community needs, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a way to diversify revenue sources. Even though the overall client base has grown and shifted, Claudia’s own caseload is heavily comprised of extreme experiences of trauma, particularly experiences of human trafficking. Claudia’s clients come to Mosaic via referrals from Child Protective Services, hospitals, social service providers, and/or immigration attorneys. Many are suffering PTSD, anxiety, and depression—emotional scars of their perilous journeys to the United States. In addition to individual, group, couples, and family therapy, Mosaic also employs attorneys who can help clients pursue immigration options and case managers who help clients secure resources, collaborating across programs to serve clients holistically. Sometimes Claudia has to write a letter as evidence in an asylum case (where people allege threat of persecution based on their national origin, religion, race, ethnicity, or other protected class to try to secure legal status in the United States) or may even be subpoenaed to testify to a client’s traumatic past. To build a network to respond to these clients, Mosaic also prioritizes community outreach and education to help people understand and identify human trafficking and to equip educators and other professionals to support people’s mental health needs.
In a typical day at Mosaic, Claudia sees traumatized clients every hour on the hour. For more than a year, these were all virtual interactions, which added eye strain to the psychological toll of her work. To ensure that she remains centered and healthy herself, she practices self-care and advises her employees to do the same. She uses the 10 minutes between sessions to refresh and saves her note-keeping until the end of the day. It is challenging to commit to these sustainable practices in a context of rapid policy changes, global threats to health and safety, and hostile political climates. While she attends trainings to keep her clinical skills fresh and tries to watch the news to stay informed about issues, after a draining day at work, sometimes she just has to tune out and reset, trusting that colleagues will help her learn what she needs to know.
In her work, Claudia draws on universal social work skills, particularly reflective listening and de-escalation techniques. Other parts of Claudia’s work are somewhat harder to teach than clinical theories and helping techniques. To practice successfully with diverse and wounded newcomers to the U.S., Claudia places a high value on diversity and exudes compassion for those who cross her path. She strives never to forget how scary the world can be when everything is literally foreign, and how transformative it can feel to be welcomed and respected. Today, her PhD studies are focused on improving techniques to effectively intervene in complex trauma—for better outcomes for her own clients, and to build the evidence base for other practitioners.
One time, Claudia was making trips up and down the stairs to move files to a new office. In the lobby, she encountered a woman holding a phone and looking bewildered. When Claudia said hello, the woman immediately asked if she spoke Spanish. Once reassured, the woman eagerly shoved the phone into Claudia’s hand and rapidly explained that she needed someone to translate so she could talk with the police about a car accident. Claudia brokered the communication, made sure the woman had what she needed, and then resumed moving files, feeling grateful that the woman knew of Mosaic and knew it was a place where she could find help. That is why Claudia became a social worker, to be the calm in others’ storms, making the world—the whole world—a better place.